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UPDATE: Population Action Network (PAN)
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Thanks all of you who took action on an alert from the
Population Action Network, generating 1,430 emails to the White
House on behalf of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
Unfortunately, earlier this week, the State Department announced
that UNFPA had been found in violation of the Kemp-Kasten
amendment and would be denied the entire $34 million
contribution that Congress had approved last December but whose
release the White House had blocked until announcing its
decision today.
Although a Senate amendment directing the President to release
the UNFPA contribution was dropped from the supplemental
appropriations bill expected to be sent to the President later
this week, a battle between Congress and the White House over
UNFPA will be fought out in the context of the FY 2003 foreign
aid appropriations bill in September. Just last week, the Senate
Appropriations Committee adopted a FY 2003 bill that earmarks
$50 million for UNFPA and rewrites the Kemp-Kasten amendment to
disqualify only those organizations that "directly participates"
in coerced abortion or involuntary sterilization.
To read UNFPA's reaction, please see their press release:
http://action.environmentaldefense.org/ct/d7111111mcJv/UNFPrelease
To read Secretary of State Powell's determination ("Analysis of
Determination that Kemp-Kasten Amendment Precludes Further
Funding to UNFPA Under Public Law 107-115"), please see:
http://action.environmentaldefense.org/ct/d1111111mcJr/Powell
To read the report of the China investigating team (submitted
May 29, 2002), please see:
http://action.environmentaldefense.org/ct/dd111111mcJf/Chinateam
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family planning programs and other important issues. Spread the
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